At East Side arts organization Second Shift Studio Space, four new artists-in-residence will explore Native beadwork, geology, dreams
Growing up in the Oglala Lakota Nation, Jaida Grey Eagle didn’t see many contemporary fine-art portraits of Native people.
So now, the St. Paul-based photographer and bead artist is creating them herself.
Starting this month, Grey Eagle will be one of four yearlong artists-in-residence at Second Shift Studio Space of St. Paul, a nonprofit arts organization on the East Side.
Other resident artists are Dahn Gim, who uses a variety of materials, including water, to explore isolation, displacement, and women’s bodies; Anna Lehner, who creates glass sculptures and other installations inspired by the Earth’s tectonic plates and geologic change; and Ivonne Yáñez, originally from Mexico City, who works with dream-like and surrealist themes in textiles and painting.
Second Shift, which also includes a public gallery space, was founded by Chris Larson and Kriss Zulkosky in 2019, in an old linoleum shop on Payne Avenue. The organization is geared toward providing accessible resources for artists who are women, gender-nonconforming, or otherwise marginalized due to gender.
Each artist will have rent-free access to their own 350 square-foot studio for a year. Artists don’t live on-site but are expected to spend a significant amount of time in the studio and lead at least one public event during their residency.
Grey Eagle’s current project focuses on portraits of women from the Oglala Lakota Nation.
For this series, she prints her photos using cyanotype, a process that exposes a monochromatic image on special blue paper using sunlight or other ultraviolet light. She then adorns the cyanotype images with traditional Native beadwork.
“It’s something that’s only now becoming accessible, to have contemporary portraits of Indigenous people made by Indigenous people,” she said. “That’s not to say that hasn’t been happening for a long time, but I think the work itself is just now being uplifted.”
Grey Eagle, who was born in South Dakota, grew up in the Twin Cities. She herself recently moved to the East Side and said she’s looking forward to having a studio in the neighborhood. The dedicated workspace at Second Shift will allow her to create bigger and more ambitious works, she said.
In addition to her artistic portraiture, Grey Eagle is also an accomplished photojournalist. Currently, she reports for Sahan Journal through the Report For America program.
Her fine-art work and documentary-style photos both have similar motivations, she said.
“I grew up seeing stories made about our people that felt so out of our hands and felt like such an outsider’s perspective,” she said. “I’m always seeking stories that bring that back to the people.”
On view now at Second Shift: The outgoing group of artists-in-residence are showing work through Sept. 16. The Resident Artist Group Exhibition includes works by Cameron Patricia Downey, Stephanie Lindquist and Zoe Cinel and is part of the Wakpa Triennial Arts Festival, a several-month public art fair produced by Public Art St. Paul.
Second Shift Studio Space: 1128 Payne Ave.; open Saturdays 12-4 p.m.; instagram.com/second.shift.studio.saintpaul/
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